I Am a Cat Summary

I Am a Cat satirizes the life of Japanese intellectuals at the turn of the century. The episodic novel, narrated in the first person by a cat, proceeds as a series of discussions on a variety of historical, artistic, and philosophical topics, such as the history of peacocks as food, the mechanics of hanging, the decline of traditional Japanese attitudes. These discussions are often sparked by the personal experiences and memories of the main human characters or the cat-narrator.

The novel begins with the cat finding himself a home in the household of a teacher. The first two chapters make the most use of the idiosyncratic point of view of a cat. Thus, the first part of the narrative refers to the other cats in the neighborhood, in particular his romantic interest in a female cat and his strategy in dealing with a bully cat. The narrator, nimbly able to slip in un-noticed anywhere he wishes, observes the peculiar habits of human beings,leading to some sly, witty conclusions about the superiority of cats. At one point, for example, the narrator ponders the possibility of organizing a cat revolt against humanity.

The third chapter, which starts with the announcement of the death of the female cat, marks a shift, as if the author needed the stimulus of fresh characters to continue. The narrator states outright that he is inclined to forget that he is a cat, a hint from the author that the focus will change. A slender plot line is...

(The entire section is 576 words.)

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